The SHARE with Schools team received some really positive feedback from James Ryan, a Lecturer in Modern European (Russian) History at Cardiff University. Here is what he had to say about the SwS initiative.

I have been involved with Share with Schools (SwS) since the academic year 2015-16. These are superb initiatives that allow academics to speak with secondary school students, often in areas that might not traditionally send many students to university. Students come to gain an understanding of what university is about, and they have an opportunity to feel welcome in a university environment. For academic historians, SwS allows us to develop impact and engagement case studies, with an audience outside the university, that we can use for purposes of return in the Research Excellent Framework (REF).

I have found my experience of working the SwS personally rewarding, but also very useful as part of an impact case study that I am preparing for the next REF cycle.

It’s been a busy fortnight here at SHARE with Schools! We’ve been out on trips to Cathays High, Woodlands High, and Michaelston Community College. Michaelston and Woodlands are part of the Ely and Caerau Federation, aka Westfed.

Volunteer coordinator Matt Vince on the Cathays visit:

Cathays visit – WW1 workshop

Last week myself, a handful of volunteers, and 40 secondary school pupils went on an adventure back in time. Back to the dreary times of World War 1 Cardiff. I must admit I was nervous. To me World War 1 is depressing – muddy boots, muddy bodies, and muddled tactics that caused both.

But through the workshop, and the stories of real life Cardiffians, World War 1 came to life before our eyes. The volunteers were absolutely incredible in this task, guiding the pupils through the artefacts in order to get at their underlying stories. From the Belgian ‘alien’ to the soldier on the Egyptian front, the pupils got to grips with the heritage of their area. Walking around the room and hearing stories from the pupil’s own families made this both incredibly relevant and exciting – tales of Grandfathers who were conscripted from Cathays where the school was, and Grandmothers who had shown the pupil’s letters from the front.

So a big thank you goes out to the volunteers who achieved this monumental task – bringing the past to life for the benefit of those in the present. It went so well that even the Ofsted inspector was impressed!

Thanks to:

Julia Rooke

Caitlin Fleming

Kieran Murphy

Clara Freer

Benjamin Dillon

Chris Parry

And coordinator Nick McDermot on the Woodlands trip:

On Tuesday SHARE with schools returned to Woodlands, to present 2 workshops. 19th Century Welsh life, thanks to artefacts provided by St Fagan’s natural history museum and Cardiff University conservation department. Also a unique workshop was presented by a group of students from Cardiff University’s Heritage and Communications module on Welsh myths and Legends.

Both workshops went very well and lead to some wonderful discussions of the difference between life in the 19th century and life today as well lots of artefact handling and examination.

A big thanks to the volunteers that made the day possible:

Charlotte Porter

Chris Parry

Daisy Atkins

Madeleine Moorcroft

Megan Keary

Alisha Chauhan

And finally a big thank you to Stephanie Hall and Caitlin Fleming who delivered at Michaelston yesterday with co-ordinators Kate Tinson and Kostas Trimmis and Dr Dave Wyatt. By all accounts it was an inspiring visit to Michaelston Community College in Ely, with 3 workshops delivered (2 x Life in 19th century Wales 1x Cardiff in WW1) to over 70 pupils in 3 hours. One of the school teachers said that “all the lessons seemed to go really well, the best I’ve seen our pupils engaged for a long time”! Here’s some images from the trip:

Today saw a SHARE with Schools’s first, as 15 volunteers, 5 PG coordinators and a faculty member worked alongside 120 Fitzalan High School pupils. Fitzalan were running their ever exciting Eisteddfod event–a Welsh cultural festival–so the pupils were out of normal timetable and doing all sorts of exciting extracurricular or enriching activities. We ran three workshops in parallel, with each being delivered twice to different pupils. The workshops consisted of the brand new Religion in the Media Workshop, the STEM Archaeology Workshop and the Museum Curatorship Workshop. All went fantastically, with some brilliant work being produced by the pupils. They were a pleasure to work with.

Some of the nice things the Fitzalan teachers said about us included:

On the brand new RE workshop:

​Excellent resources that engaged the pupils.

Excellent delivery by students

Students/postgrads were enthusiastic and confident in their knowledge

Pupils were fully engaged for the whole sessions. As librarian I often witness pupils are not able to remain focussed for an hour – but all were well behaved today.

About the STEM ​Archaeology workshop

The students were introduced to an area which they may never have an opportunity to experience. They were interested and inspired about archaeology.

Great team of people very at ease with delivering the contents. Great interactions, communication with comments. Especially the idea of the uni students go[ing] around and meeting/teaching each one of the groups.

The resources allow the pupils to visualise what is being discussed, and reach conclusion in their own times. (A lot of the pupils present today were EAL [English as an Additional Language] but they all were able to quickly understand and follow the lesson.

A big thank you to the plethora of student volunteers who made this visit possible and delivered so marvellously: